Excerpt: Green Christmas

Chapter Two

"But here they let us stand
All freezing in the cold:
Good master, give command
To enter and be bold,
With our wassel."
--A Jolly Wassel Bowl

I had no preconceptions about who might be standing at my door. I had expected no one, and so should have been surprised by no one. I was surprised.
Nothing can really prepare you for the reality of a Sidhe on your doorstep. He was, as Kevin had said, tall, closing on seven feet. His skin was not Wicked Witch of the West green, and I could not imagine how Kevin had mistaken it for make-up. It was as if green light had reflected off of fair skin, creating an effect of living green light that seemed to emanate from within him. There was a similar green glow about his curling brown hair, the color of tarnished copper. The eyes were slanted and bright as emeralds. No one would ever have mistaken him for human. Fortunately, I could see a faint shimmer of glamour in the air about him. To anyone without the Sight, he would not appear to be there at all.
He was standing on my threshold, feet planted on the red and green welcome mat. That had implications. “You’re Seleighe.” My consternation was evident in my voice. The members of the Seleighe Court are the “good fairies” and aren’t normally given to bloodshed and chaos. That was normally the realm of the Unseleighe.
“What makes you say that?” he inquired with false innocence, but he did not lie by actually denying it. Fae did not lie, but there were adept at molding the truth to their own uses.
“Well, there’s a piece of bread made with St. John’s Wort under the welcome mat,” I told him flatly. “If you were Unseleighe, you would be in flames now.”
He laughed with a sound that seemed to brighten the light of the low winter sun. “I do love a women who is prepared for all eventualities.”
Was he flirting with me? The idea was mind-boggling. “And in the interest of helping you to maintain your good health, I’ll inform you that there are horseshoes on all sides of the door frame on the inside. You can probably guess what will happen if you walk through the door.”
“Very clever, yes, I sensed the cold iron, likely the reason I did not notice your other protections.” He smiled mysteriously. “Yes, your fortress is quite safe. I am impressed by your wards.”
I nodded. “Good. You can see that you cannot take him from my home by force, so I suppose that is why you have knocked on the door, hoping to fool me into letting him come out. But I can tell you that he will not be leaving my wards until I am certain that he is safe.”
“Really?” He seemed surprised by this statement, though only mildly. “That’s almost a lie. Surely you know that you cannot keep him inside always. This is not a threat, merely an observation. But be that as it may, you have misjudged the reason for my visit.”
“Oh, have I?”
“Quite so.” He winked at me.
Fae are always maddening, but this one seemed to be especially so. “Very well, then what is your motivation for knocking on my door?”
The green eyes went wide, and he flashed another smile, clearly meant to be irresistible. I’d learned to resist the too beautiful Kevin years before, so I had some immunity to this sort of thing, though Kevin had not been quite so inhumanly beautiful. “Why, lady, I desired to meet you.”
“I see. Why?”
He looked surprised by the question. Likely other women looked no further than the complement. “A woman with the character to promise protection to the knight errant, with the forethought and skill to so effectively ward her home, and who I could see through the window was every bit as beautiful as she was wise, a modern day Viviane, surely. How could I not wish to speak to you?”
“Were there no other reasons?” While he likely thought the complements were true, they were clearly a smokescreen for his real intentions, lesser truths to hide the greater.
He made an unconcerned gesture. “The curiosity was one with the admiration. I wished to know what manner of woman had stumbled into our tale. I must say I am pleased with this development. I am certain you will play your part to perfection.”
“And what part is that?”
Now a gentler smile curved his lips. “To protect the boy, of course, to offer him the hope of safety, nothing that you would not do of your own volition.”
“That is all?” I asked, puzzled by this development. Why on earth would he want me to interfere with his plans. Likely, I supposed, he wanted a challenge. Fae are prone to boredom after all. With their immortal life spans, I suppose everything gets old.
“Well, I cannot deny having a wish to make you fall in love with me,” he confessed without the slightest touch of self-consciousness or ego. Most men would say it either with truth and awkwardness or as a shallow pick-up line with a tone that let you know they were joking or at least fooling themselves. This strange Fae said it with confidence but without any brashness, as if it were a fact to be discussed as easily as the weather.
“Who are you?” I asked with wonder. This was no ordinary Fae, if there was such a thing. I had met Sidhe before, and none of them had been as odd as this one.
His eyebrows rose. “Surely with your great knowledge of fairy lore, lady, you know that we are not in the habit of giving out names.”
I had, in fact, known this. “It is not unknown, however, for you to give mortals something to call you by.”
“That is true enough,” he agreed. “Very well, the name you shall know me by is Odhren.”
I knew enough Gaelic to identify the name’s meaning of “green-skinned.” It was singularly uncreative on his part. “Very well, Odhren, you may call me Natalie.”
“A beautiful name,” Odhren answered with a bow. “And fitting to the season, a name that speaks of birth. I could not be more pleased to welcome you into my story, Lady Natalie.”
As nice as these complements were, I still found him infuriating. “I don’t feel like playing with you, Odhren.”
His eyes almost appeared hurt, but he took it in stride. “Lady Natalie, you are within the story now, and whether you like it or not, you have accepted your part within it. Whether you comes to enjoy it or not is your choice, but will you or nill you, you are within the story, and you are playing my game.”
Something about this calm arrogance made me even more angry, and I finally lost my cool. “Why is that Fae always seem to believe that people are toys to be played with. Our lives are not here for your amusement, Odhren. Our lives are here for us. Meddling is bad enough, but condemning a man to death because he agreed to some sort of ridiculous challenge is not the sort of behavior that is acceptable, especially from a Sidhe who is apparently Seleighe. What the hell is wrong with you?”
Odhren drew back from my outburst. “But I have not condemned him to death. I’ve condemned him to letting me attempt to chop off his head. That’s hardly the same thing.”
It was a ridiculous thing to say, and worse because he meant it to be true. It was not more of his sophistry. He did not understand that a human simply could not survive having his or head cut off. Sometimes, the Fae truly do not understand the nature of mortality. “Are you likely to miss?” I inquired gently.
“I have never swung my axe and not hit exactly what I intended to hit,” he said proudly.
“Then Kevin’s head is cut off,” I explained, “and humans can not survive without their heads.”
Odhren blinked at me for several moments and then laughed again, once more seeming to summon light and joy into the very air. “Lady Natalie, do not think that you can see the end of the tale when the book has scarcely been opened. There is much yet that may befall, and even I am not certain how this story will end this time.”
I struggled to hide my smile. He had just dropped me a clue, whether intentionally or accidentally. Odhren had done this before, maybe even multiple times. It was completely possible that it was recorded somewhere, either in an old fairy legend or in the notes of some other witch who had attempted to foil him. I might be able to discover how to save Kevin, because there was always a way. The Fae were like that. “Then you may find that I turn your game against you.”
“I very much look forward to watching you attempt it.” Odhren bowed again. “Do not be so certain that you know everything there is to know, Lady Natalie. I may yet surprise you, before this game is done, and I may yet teach you to enjoy the playing of it. Until next we meet, farewell.” With those words he vanished, taking his green light and his glamour with him. I had no idea where he had gone, but was not surprised by that. Fae disappear sometimes, perhaps, as the stories indicate, going back to the Otherworld that is their true home. They certainly don’t seem to be around in our world, all of the time.
I shook my head. This had only begun, and I was already exhausted. It was not a good sign. Still, at least I had a place to start working from, and I had been reassured that he could not bypass my wards and take Kevin in spite of my protections. That would have to be good enough for now. Later, well, we would see.